Why did my Kindle reboot itself?

[Julius Caesar]

All of the sudden, when typing a location to jump to, my Kindle Paperwhite briefly frozen before it rebooted itself. Has anyone seen this before? I have the latest firmware version 5.3.1

[HarryT]

These things can happen occasionally. All readers have bugs.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Julius Caesar

All of the sudden, when typing a location to jump to, my Kindle Paperwhite briefly frozen before it rebooted itself. Has anyone seen this before? I have the latest firmware version 5.3.1

Yep it happen to me the other day when I went to change the light settings. It freaked me out as I never had a Kindle auto reboot before just freeze.

I have since then learn the PW answer to anything it can't handle is a auto reboot so I no longer freak out anymore.

[Julius Caesar]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Yep it happen to me the other day when I went to change the light settings. It freaked me out as I never had a Kindle auto reboot before just freeze.

I have since then learn the PW answer to anything it can't handle is a auto reboot so I no longer freak out anymore.

Kindle OS is based on Linux. I thought Linux is much more robust and stable than Microsoft Windows.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Julius Caesar

Kindle OS is based on Linux. I thought Linux is much more robust and stable than Microsoft Windows.

The hardware's OS is based on Linux. The Kindle framework and front-end is all Java.

[tomsem]

After an update, Kindle will usually re-index all of the content. this takes system resources, and performance will be sluggish, and it is more vulnerable to runtime errors that cause rebooting. I've also seen situations where it seemed that there was a memory or resource leak resulting from running certain Active Content apps. And rebooting problems seem to be more common when a new device is shipped. Those are usually addressed in subsequent updates.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by tomsem

After an update, Kindle will usually re-index all of the content. this takes system resources, and performance will be sluggish, and it is more vulnerable to runtime errors that cause rebooting. I've also seen situations where it seemed that there was a memory or resource leak resulting from running certain Active Content apps. And rebooting problems seem to be more common when a new device is shipped. Those are usually addressed in subsequent updates.

My Kindle came with the latest firmware. It has 6 books on it and no active content. It just auto rebooted when I went to change the light settings. Hasn't done it again since the first time but others have mention auto rebooting so I know I'm not aone. I think it's the firmware's way of dealing with problems. Never had this issue on any other Kindle.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The Kindle framework and front-end is all Java.

Oh dear.

Homeland Security says Java bad. Hide your Kindles!

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

Oh dear.

Homeland Security says Java bad. Hide your Kindles!

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by Julius Caesar

I thought Linux is much more robust and stable than Microsoft Windows.

This sounds like a fanboy-type statement.

It all depends which Windows you have, which Linux you have, and what you are doing. And since it's almost impossible to keep all variables constant, it comes down to a gut impression.

My gut impression is that Linux used to be more stable but Windows has roughly drawn even.

I once had a GPS based on Windows Mobile. I'd think that the Kindle could have been based on on a Windows family OS, and it wouldn't have made much difference to us.

My Kindle Keyboard does sometimes reboot itself. Maybe once a week it will do that, or freeze.

I remember reading, decades ago, that the Mac was so good, you only had to reboot once a day. Standards have risen, but eReaders are still computers on the inside, and still have bugs.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Julius Caesar

Kindle OS is based on Linux. I thought Linux is much more robust and stable than Microsoft Windows.

I've not dug deeply into the Kindle OS, but it's my understanding that all programs are running as the root user, which means that they have a little more ability to trash things, though spontaneous reboots are usually not caused by problems in programs running in user-space, even as root. More likely there are bugs in the display driver or input driver that run in a ring closer to the kernel than user-space programs, with fewer protections. It's also entirely possible [though complete speculation] that Amazon has modified the kernel itself and runs Kindle specific things in ring 0 which is basically completely unprotected.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_(computer_security)

[new]

Mine has froze twice on me now. Few days ago (after I paid to remove ads) I opened my KFHD cover and it was stuck on a screensaver, I opened and closed the cover again and again. Touched with finger and nothing. So I had to hard reset and it took many tries to finally get it going again.

The first time I think it froze up because I kept hitting page turns and it wasn't responding. Think they may need an update

[ixtab]

The *base* OS of the Kindle Paperwhite is Linux, and (unsurprisingly) it's rock stable.

But on top of that runs a wild conglomerate of native applications, Java, HTML5/Javascript, and LUA. And all of these run as root. Something in there seems to cause memory leaks, so it's almost certain that your device will reboot by itself sooner or later. I've also seen the JVM (and the webreader application) crash because of ill-formatted books. Whenever something goes wrong and the device notices it, it either restarts the framework, or plain reboots.

The problem is NOT with the OS, but with the applications. And the solution which Amazon chose is to restart the device.

[DuckieTigger]

Ixtab, I can confirm the memory leaks. Every single time mine crashed and rebooted it was complaining about memory in the log. What is using 70 or 80 mb before it goes south? Is that the jvm?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The hardware's OS is based on Linux. The Kindle framework and front-end is all Java.

JavaSCRIPT. Very, very different to Java .